90% of B’Haram’s victims are Muslims — Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday declared that 90 per cent of Boko Haram’s victims in the past years were Muslims. “It is the reality that some 90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims.

They include a copycat abduction of over 100 Muslim schoolgirls, along with their single Christian classmate; shootings inside mosques; and the murder of two prominent imams.

“It is a simple fact that these now-failing terrorists have targeted the vulnerable, the religious, the non-religious, the young, and the old without discrimination,” he said in an article in Speaking Out; a guest opinion column for Christianity Today, published in US.

However, in a swift reaction, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, rebutted the President’s claims, saying the Federal Government “has not commissioned any multi-stakeholder survey to ascertain the facts and figures.”

President Buhari was reacting to the outrage  trailing the murder of the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Rev. Lawan Andimi, after Boko Haram insurgents who kidnapped him rejected a N50 million ransom.

President Buhari said the perception that members of the sect were always targeting Christians in Nigeria is not completely true, adding that the terrorists have targeted the vulnerable without discrimination.

However, an investigation by Vanguard showed that the terrorists have intensified attacks against Christians and why they are doing so.

The insurgents began their murderous activities in 2009 after the killing of their leader, Mohammed Yusuf. The Global Terrorism Index, GTI, indicates that the group since 2009 has killed tens of thousands and displaced 2.3 million people.

– Vanguard